Because the world really needed another blog dedicated to the Portland Trail Blazers. We're a group of journalists and fans who've grown up with--or have grown to love--Oregon's only professional franchise (and this won't change when MLS comes to town). Plus we're convinced that--if given the chance--we could totally hit the Toyota halfcourt shot. Until then, we're stuck here in the Portland Roundball Society.
If the subject of a post has a question mark in it, that probably means it’s just another daily dose of trade speculation. This includes a Portland mention in this Caron Butler column from David “I’m not as soft as LaMarus” Aldridge over at NBA.com:
(Don’t discount Portland, either. While much has been made of the Blazers’ pursuit of Washington center Brendan Haywood, the Blazers have just as much, if not more, interest in Butler, and are willing to put $3 milliion in cash toward a deal — which certainly interests the Wizards. But Portland’s refusal to put any of its young players other than Martell Webster in any potential deal puts it on the outside looking in. As has been reported, the Wizards want either Nicholas Batum — no chance — or Rudy Fernandez — not likely, as he is a favorite of many inside the Blazers’ braintrust. The Lakers would also love to repatriate Butler with Kobe Bryant, who would love to have him. But L.A. doesn’t have the expiring contract/young player assets necessary to get seriously involved.)
Interesting. I suspect I might be alone in liking Butler’s game more than most Blazer fans probably do, but is he worth the young talent? Since the Jermaine O’Neal trade, Portland has been very reluctant to trade any young players, for fear that their shift from potential to talent will eventually come back to hurt the franchise. But it’s clear that something needs to get done this Portland team (currently in 4th place in the Northwest Division) to keep their head above the playoff waters.
Should the Blazers keep browsing? (Since last time I checked Butler doesn’t play center and won’t solve that problem.) Or should they make a move? Who would you swap for Butler?
They couldn’t beat L.A., so Blazer fans decided instead to beat the traffic. Down a seemingly insurmountable 18 points with 3:23 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Blazer contingent of the lower bowl started streaking towards the exits. The torrent of bodies was as cold and swift as the Columbia. A minute and a half later, parts of the 300 level were begining to empty out—a sight almost as rare as a Laker win in Portland. But fans can be forgiven, I suppose, for wanting to avoid scenes like this one.
Saturday’s 99-82 loss was the first time in 10 games that the Lakers left the Rose Garden with their heads high. Futhermore, it was L.A.’s biggest margin of victory in Portland since the nearly identical score on January 3rd 1988. That game was played at Memorial Coliseum.
Even stranger, the Lakers ended the streak without Kobe Bryant. And I can’t help but wonder if all Portland’s collective hatred of the Black Mamba as a galvanizing force left some kind of emotional void on the court at the Rose Garden—it certainly did in the air.
After Roy’s press conference came the news that Bryant too would sit out. It came as a shock to many members of the media, not to mention the throngs of Laker fans salivating in their #24 jersey. And while Bryant’s absence seemed to up the Blazers’ chances, it didn’t make for a compelling matchup. Indeed tonight’s buzz was nowhere near it’s usual Laker-visit pandemonium.
Blazer fans, however, may take some consolation that Bryant’s streak of nine-straight Rose Garden defeats remains alive and well. But for most, Saturday night was still a heavy blow to take. I asked Nate McMillan where this loss stacked up against the most difficult of the season and he snapped at me a little in response:
The Blazers were outplayed across the board. Statistically speaking, the only categories they bested the Lakers were in free throws attempted (19 to 15) and free throw percentage.
L.A. dominated most thoroughly was on the glass. The Lakers out-rebounded Portland 47-30 overall, and a nauseating 12 to two on the offensive end which helped the visitors take 13 more shots than the home team.
Lamar Odom led L.A. with 22 boards—more than the combined total of Portland’s starting lineup (together they had 20). Odom began the night matched up against Andre Miller and immediately started posting up the substantially smaller guard. I asked Odom if he felt a big night coming on when he looked the potential matchups beforehand:
As Odom said, the Lakers have the ability to go big or small. And when a player who’s 6’10” can play everything from point guard to center, the injury ravaged Trail Blazers are often going to find themselves at a dissadvantage.
While he isn’t versatile like Odom, Pau Gasol also gives the Lakers freedom to strech. Equal parts finesse and power, the seven foot tall Spaniard is a good enough passer where he doesn’t necessarily need to be in the key to thrive. Gasol, who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, talked about finally getting a win in the Rose Garden, and how the sitting of Kobe Bryand and Brandon Roy cancel each other out somewhat. He also noted that the Blazers were startlingly thin inside:
The only Blazer players whose performances were any better than just mediocre were Andre Miller and Juwan Howard, even if their nights felt mostly quiet. Miller hit five of eight attempts, and finished with 14 points and six assists. Howard hit five of seven shots for 10, and grabbed seven boards. The rest of the cast didn’t give the veterans much help.
Sure, LaMarcus Aldridge scored 16 points, but it took him just as many shots. Martell Webster and Steve Blake were atrocious. Webster was one of seven for two points, while Blake had a similar line—one for five, three points. In the locker room afterwards, a sullen Webster took responsibility for his poor performance:
Despite Webster’s admission, this wasn’t a loss to be hung on a single player or players—the entire team got worked by the Bryant-less Lakers.
When the Blazers succeed as of late, it’s usually because a player or two finds a hot hand that inspires the rest of the team to lay out. But against the Lakers Saturday night that leader never appeared. And while credit must go to the opposing defense, tonight’s failure was more than systematic. On too many possessions the Blazers looked aimless on offensive. No one seemed to want to be The Man. But with at least two more games before Brandon Roy returns, the Blazers need someone with ego enough to try.
Before tonight's game Brandon Roy took questions from the media. As a result of his strained hamstring, Roy will sit out until after the All Star break. Before I could get video rolling Roy said the injury bothers him most when he tries to make "explosive moves." Perhaps the most noteworthy part of the video is where Roy admits that the injury has been more than a little depressing.
Clearly this doesn't bode well for tonight or the Blazers' home winning streak vs the Lakers. Fans at the game better buy a couple extra drinks to stoke that extra fire.
The Official Team Press Release:
BRANDON ROY SIDELINED THROUGH ALL-STAR BREAK
Portland guard to undergo PRP therapy on Monday
PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy will miss Portland's next three games and the NBA All-Star Game with a right hamstring strain, it was announced today by General Manager Kevin Pritchard.
"Unfortunately, I'm not where I was hoping I would be physically at this point,
said Roy. "It's a setback and I'm obviously disappointed, but my entire focus is getting back on the court, contributing and helping our team down the stretch."
Roy initially injured his hamstring January 13 vs. Milwaukee and re-aggravated it January 20 at Philadelphia. He has missed 11 of Portland's last 12 games heading into tonight's game with the L.A. Lakers.
"This was not a decision that any of us wanted to make, but in the end we had to do what was best for Brandon,” said Pritchard. "We're hopeful that this extended rest will put Brandon in the best possible position to return to the line-up shortly after the All-Star break."
Roy will undergo Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy with Dr. Neal ElAttrache at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles on Monday.
Roy leads the team in scoring (23.1), free throws made (213) and minutes (38.3), and ranks second on the squad in assists (5.0) and steals (1.03). In just 40 games this season, he has led the team in scoring 25 times and assists on 15 occasions (including ties).
Kobe inquires to the unfortunate absence of the Funky Bunch
Ten straight. The modern day Los Angeles Lakers are not the sort of team that loses consecutive games in the double-digits to anyone. The Lakers have championship banners, a bonafide superstar, a coach with as many rings as fingers, and better-looking Baldwins sitting courtside at their games. The Lakes do not drop ten in a row. Period.
Yet here we are.
Tonight the Blazers go for win number ten in a row at home against the Lakers. Sure, there are other plots at play—the possible return of Brandon Roy, the Lakers home loss on Friday to Denver, tonight marking the 40th anniversary of the Blazers franchise—but it's hard to escape the shadow of number ten. Visits from Los Angeles are like dress rehearsals for the playoffs at the Rose Garden, where the city of Portland gets rowdy and takes out their collective frustration against a team that has broken the hearts of an entire generation of Blazer fans. To the Lakers, it's just another game, but to those with loyalty to the Blazers' pinwheel, a visit from the Lakers is like Christmas morning: you don't know exactly what is going to happen, but it's going to be a blast.
Roy is more or less a tipoff decision, but considering the magnitude of this game, he will likely be out there. Since this is his second attempt to comeback from the same hamstring injury, his minutes might be severely limited. The Lakers looked fine last night against the Nuggets, that is, until Chauncy Billups decided to never miss another shot. Los Angeles gave up 15 three-pointers last night. Takes notes, Martell Webster.
If you think that Kobe Bryant's injured ankle will slow him down, you will be disappointed. Bryant logged 39 minutes last night and had 33 points with nine boards. Instead, Lakers fans should be more concerned with Bryant's surrounding cast, including Andrew Bynum, who is protesting his All-Star snub by averaging a pedestrian 11 points and eight rebounds a night over his last five games.
Then again, who cares about ten straight wins against the Lakers at the Rose Garden? I just want to see Nicolas Batum dunk over Pau Gasol. Remember, Batum is keeping track of these things, and Frenchy88 is looking for dunk number trois against Gasol. I know it's greedy to expect both a victory and a Gasolposteraztion, but the way things are going when Los Angeles is in town, you never know.
All Tony Parker could do was sit and watch. Marooned at the scorer's table while he waited for a whistle to get him back in the game, he saw the clock tick inside 4 minutes ... and 3 ... and 2 ... while a six-point San Antonio lead turned into a dispiriting 96-93 defeat to Portland.
• Seth Johnson from BustaBucket talks about the uncertainty in the offense without Roy and playing with heart.
Then in the fourth quarter, as we’ve seen over and over again regardless of which Blazers are on the floor, this team refused to quit. I used to accept the “too young to know better” line, but there is more to Portland’s drive than naiveté. Heart is ingrained into this team’s culture. They kept working and while the shots were there for San Antonio all night, eventually the Spurs started missing.
• Mike Barrett says if this season was submitted as a Hollywood script, you'd have had it thrown back in your face. Well, that’s probably because teams in Hollywood scripts typically win the championship and whatnot… regardless, this team has shown a lot of heart and grit and other euphemisms for just “not giving up.” No matter how this season ends, playoffs or no, this Blazers team has shown us all something. Racked with injuries, they has given the city of Portland something to be proud of.
Webster has had big moments in his Blazers career -- a game-winning three against New Orleans in his rookie year and a 24-point quarter against Utah two seasons ago. But Thursday's shot, in the heat of a developing playoff race, in front of a national TNT audience, with an arena ready to burst, had to be his biggest moment.
The Spurs had their chances. They had the game by the throat but were unable to finish the chokehold. That’s the difference between this team and former Spurs teams.
Although there have been a number of close games in the Rose Garden this season, it feels like a while since all of Portland's fans have been on their feet for a few final nervous minutes. But as the fourth quarter wound down Thursday there they were, exercising the collective will.
In a number of ways the Blazer's 96-93 comeback victory over the Spurs was reminiscent of last season, where fans consistently stood up to witness fourth quarter deficits be overcome. And like many of those nail-biters, this one took a bit of luck.
After Andre Miller missed a free throw that would've given the Blazers a two-possession lead, the Blazer defense sputtered. Manu Ginobili--who was putting on his own vintage performance--was allowed a wide open three in the corner to tie. It was the shot the Spurs wanted and they got it. But Ginobili's attempt rimmed out. Later, coach McMillan admitted his team was somewhat fortunate:
On the other hand, Portland had a handfull of reasons to be proud. Before tonight the Spurs were 23-4 when taking a lead into the fourth quarter. The Blazers flipped the script, outscoring San Antonio 30 to 19 in the final period.
The win also washed away the bad taste lest after Wednesday's thrashing in Utah. On the second night of back-to-backs the Blazers have amassed the unlikely record of of nine and three.
Perhaps most impressive is the way each member of the Spurs Big Three (Ginobili, Duncan and Parker) was out-dueled by his Blazer counterpart (Webster, Aldridge and Miller). In two of those the matchups the young up-and-comer bested his veteran opponent.
Of the group, certainly the Man of the Hour was Webster, who did what Ginobili could not: sink a critical three. Webster, who nailed all five of his three point attempts, kept his cool and knocked down four game-clinching free throws. The sequence, as coach McMillan noted, was probably the most pressure-filled moments of Webster's young career. He talked about the game's final moments:
After all the press had gone I also asked Martell what outplaying star veterans (he called them "legends") means to him and his young team.
LaMarcus Aldridge added some late-game pressure on Martell's free throws by missing two of his own. (After the game Nicolas Batum joked with Aldridge that he if made the free throws he would've gotten 30). Despite that lapse, the Blazers' power forward played an otherwise steely game. He finished with 28 points and 13 rebounds, hitting numerous late-game shots during the Blazers' comeback charge.
Against Tim Duncan, Aldridge came out with more points (28 to 21) and more rebounds (13 to 12). But unlike Webster, Aldridge played it safe when asked what it means to get the better legendary opposition (he did, however, crack a big smile):
Early in the game Tony Parker was running circles around the Blazer defense, and Steve Blake in particular. But when push came to shove, Andre Miller was more effective. Miller got the Blazers out of an early hole by pushing the fast break, and guided the team late (when Parker was nowhere to be found). It was Miller who orchestrated the Webster three, the game's biggest play.
Miller dribbled into the lane, swooped below the basket, and while falling down he found Nic Batum in the corner. Batum swung the ball to the open Webster, who drained the open look. Miller finished with 11 points and 10 assists to Tony Parker's 18 and six.
The win was Portland's fifth straight over the Spurs, and like the others it was extraordinarily meaningful. On one hand, playing without Brandon Roy (who could return Saturday) any win over a playoff bound team is a good one. But as San Antonio has so thoroughly dominated the Blazers until recently, any payback feels especially sweet.
Notes:
- I wanted badly to talk to Tony Parker about his fellow countryman Nic Batum. Unfortunately Parker dressed quickly and bolted while I was still in the Blazers locker room. All we're left with is Richard Jefferson:
- Juwan Howard had 10 points and eight rebounds.
- Jerryd Bayless had both of his knees wrapped and iced afterwards, and with help from the trainer, said he had a quad contusion, but he seems determined to keep playing.
Nathan Begley | Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 11:30AM
Your daily (Mon-Fri) roundup of links from around the blogosphere, typically Trail Blazers related.
• When the Blazers work a back-to-back, so do we. Portland Roundball Society has last night’s recap right here (complete with modern art). Want to forget last night ever happened and move on to the Spurs game? We've got that covered too.
27-12-5 with 15 free-throw attempts out of LaMarcus Aldridge has to impress even the most stubborn haters among you. He was physical in his own right, getting his body on guys to secure boards, drawing contact and running the floor. He looked like a player who knew that without him, the team would get utterly destroyed by Utah’s bigs. That happened regardless, but Aldridge at least gave Portland a true four-quarter lifespan. This was the Aldridge you want to see someday in a tough playoff series.
• Joe Freeman reports that Batum and Bayless are banged up, but OK. Whew, I know I’m not the only one who cringes at the slightest hard fall or injury these days.
Utah has now shot over 60% against Portland in each of the three games this season, a truly astonishing statistic that can't just be blamed on "hot shooting."
The Blazers have been able to cover for the losses of Joel Przybilla and Greg Oden against some teams. But, the Jazz have constructed a blue print for how to attack Portland- that being, attack the rim.
It wasn't so much that the Jazz couldn't miss; it was the Blazers just couldn't get to Utah. Just couldn't stop them. Could keep up with the penetration, sure, but mainly they couldn't handle the passing. Utah just had its way.
The question facing Nate McMillan: How do I reincorporate a ridiculously promising Nicolas Batum into my rotation while still hanging on to as much of the career-best production I've been receiving from Martell Webster?
• San Antonio is my current stomping grounds while I’m in law school. I find a strange kinship between the Spurs and Blazers as both are small market teams, Kevin Pritchard and Monty Williams are both former members of the Spurs organization, plus Nicolas Batum was reportedly targeted by the Spurs before the Blazers and Rockets traded picks allowing Portland to draft him just before the Spurs selected. Both cities are one sport towns with fanatical and devoted fan bases, and both cities have a strong distaste for the Lakers. The biggest difference between the two cities? San Antonians (and Texans in general) have no clue how to drive in this foreign substance we in Oregon call “rain."
• Casey Holdahl reports that Paul Allen is feeling much better. Get well soon Mr. Allen, we’re all supporting you in your battle with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Ezra Ace Caraeff | 
I fell down!